Saturday, August 30, 2008

Ike Bloom operated Freiberg's Dance Hall on 22nd St., between Wabash and State, infamously known as the worst business of its ilk in the city. Freiberg's offered a bar, a dance floor, and a stage where prostitutes sang and danced kept the clientele entertained. One Chicago newspaper referred to it as "notorious even among the other dens of revelry and orgy which make up the South Side Levee." The Chicago Vice Commission referred to it as "the most notorious place in Chicago," and it was a known to be a place where women were kidnapped and sold into prostitution.

Bloom himself was politically well-connected and was chiefly in charge of collecting protection money in the Levee on behalf of the 1st Ward alderman's office.

The place was operated with few interruptions until 1918, when it was finally shut down. Bloom lived until 1930.